Feral pigeon in my care

[Summer]

Hi everyone,
I would like to get some opinions here on my situation with a feral pigeon I'm caring for.
It will be a month this coming Monday since I found him. He was in sad shape. Could not fly, or even stand up. He fell over on his side and couldn't right himself. His neck was injured and he was having great trouble breathing. I thought he was a goner, but I thought I would try to help him anyway. He was just lying in the back yard.

I picked him up & brought him inside and just held him for a little while.
He was shivering and he was also vibrating very fast like birds do when they're close to dying.
I really didn't have much hope for him, but I wanted to help him at least to warm up.
I found a superficial abrasion right across his throat as if he flew into a wire or something. No broken wings, no broken feathers at all, but he had NO TAIL. No tail feathers at all.
I examined his neck. He couldn't even use it
, he couldn't hold it in the right position. I I found that if I pushed on the right side of his neck right behind the head, he could breathe alot better. Everytime I would let go, he would go into breathing distress again. So I thought, what am I going to do here....after about an hour and a half of doing this, I was finally able to let go and he could breathe on his own. It wasn't perfect, as he was breathing a little too shallow and fast, but he was BREATHING without distress. I really didn't expect him to make it thru the night, but at least he was not suffering like he was when I found him, so if he was going to die, then at least he was warm, and breathing well.
Oh yes, he stopped shivering quickly after warming him, and within an hour he stopped the vibrating. To my surprise he did survive the night, and by the next day he was breathing normally. It took him several days to get full use of his neck to the point of being able to turn it all the way around like they do, and his tail shafts started to pop out.
When I found him he was 15 1/2 ounces but he went down to 14 ounces pretty quickly. I was worried about that and if I'm remebering correctly he even went down to 13 1/2. But then he stopped losing and started gaining some back. He now varies between 14 and 14 1/2 ounces.
I can't seem to get him back to his 15 1/2 oucnes. ANY SUGGESTIONS AS TO WHAT I CAN FEED HIM? I'm feeding him a combo of racing pigeon feed and regular pigeon feed. Some wild bird seed mixed in too. He won't eat sunflower seeds, or corn. I have not tried fresh corn or peas which I read are good for them. Is this true? I want to find out first if it's ok to try that for him.

His tail is growing back nicely. His neck is perfect. He has full use of it. No wing injury either. I'm just waiting for his tail to grow back. In this last month it has grown back to about one inch before the wing tips. I'm thinking the tail will reach the wing tips within 4 days or so. I know their tails should come about 2 inches past the wing tips. Should I wait until it's full length, or will it be ok for it to just reach the wing tips?
About the cold....I live in PA, in Lower Bucks County, if anyone is familiar with this area. I have him in a bedroom in which I have shut off the heat and am leaving the window open a bit, but it's not real cold in there so he 's not used to how cold it is getting to be out there. Will he be able to adjust ok?

Anyone have any idea how he cold have lost all of his tail feathers? There were no broken feathers, just no tail feathers at all.
I think maybe not having the tail caused him to not have full balance,and fly into something to cause the abrasion across his throat and hurt his neck.
Thank you, Summer


[This message has been edited by Summer (edited October 27, 2001).]

[raynjudy]

Hi Summer!

Check your email.

Judy

[Marian]

Hi Summer,

Pigeons and doves have a defense mechanism in which their tail feathers will immediately fall out if they are grabbed or attacked, so they can escape.
Whenever you see a pigeon with all or most of its tail gone, it has survived such an experience.
Their other feathers will also come loose very easily when they are scared by someone or something that grabs them.
They will have this happen if even their owners frighten and grab them so we have to be careful not to grip the tail.

Marian

[bigbird]

If your bird is healthy it will eat what it needs. If it will not eat enough, try placing the pigeon seed in warm water, drain and place in front of your bird.
Sometimes they will eat thawed baby green peas.
If you live in a very cold area, your bird will probably not survive if you release.
Can you keep it until spring? By then you will love it so much that you will not want to release it to the wild.
Good luck,
Carl